Overview

In the shadow of global conflicts—from World War II through the tensions of the Cold War—an extraordinary scientific revolution was quietly unfolding. A brilliant collective of geneticists and microbiologists, known as the Phage Group, harnessed the power of bacterial viruses to unlock the very structure of genes, giving birth to Molecular Biology as we know it today. As antimicrobial resistance threatens global health, phages have reemerged as critical subjects of scientific inquiry, yet their pivotal role in the genetic discoveries of the 1940s–1960s remains largely overlooked—until now. The Role of Phages in Early Molecular Genetics: History of an Emerging Discipline bridges history, physics, and virology, offering both scientists and general readers a compelling narrative of how these microscopic entities revolutionized our understanding of life itself. Key Features: Explains how bacterial viruses became the unexpected heroes in humanity’s quest to understand the genetic code Discusses the forgotten historical and social forces—Lysenkoism, Spencerism, and McCarthyism—that shaped scientific progress yet vanished from our collective memory Provides a fascinating parallel between the emergence of phage biology and quantum physics, two revolutionary fields developing in tandem By illuminating the shared patterns of scientific discovery across disciplines, The Role of Phages in Early Molecular Genetics: History of an Emerging Discipline provides a timely reminder of how breakthrough knowledge emerges—and why the Phage Group’s legacy deserves its rightful place in scientific history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Luigi Marongiu
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   CRC Press
ISBN:  

9781041109877

ISBN 10:   1041109873
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   02 December 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements About the author 1. Prologue 1980, Wichita 1999, Topeka 2011, Stockholm New York, the present day The purpose of this book 2. London and Paris Underfunded Instrument of recovery A corner of a table From the lab-bench to the bedside Happy years Iron curtain 3. Berlin, Göttingen, and Copenhagen Stargazing Quantum leap Back home The green pamphlet 4. Rome and Los Angeles A vessel to the promised land All the way to Rome Nuclear fission The emperor’s new clothes A visit to the basement Flying solo Quantum biology 5. Nashville and Bloomington Homo scientificus The mutants Mutual exclusion Hershey Heaven The pleasures of Cold Spring Harbor 6. New York The musketeers of the bacteriophages The revenants Linkage disequilibrium Breaking glass The blender experiment Sudden disappearance λ 7. West coast The bacterial sexual revolution Serendipity, again Recriminations The essence of genes The RNA Tie Club The outsiders A different moral universe Growing involvement 8. Homecoming An ethical legacy Phage renaissance Demanding a better future Conclusions Bibliography and Index

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Author Information

Dr. Luigi Marongiu studied Molecular Biology at the University of Roma Tre, Italy, and obtained a PhD in Virology at the University College London, England. He studied viral infections at the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Heidelberg, and Tübingen. Currently, he is leading the Nutritional Virology Unit within the Department of Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, where he is investigating the role of nutrition in altering the biology of bacteriophages and its effect on human health. He is the author of the manual Machine learning analysis of qPCR data using R.

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